Ten Reasons Aronofksy Really Left "The Wolverine"

(not really)

By now you've heard the news that Darren Aronofsky has left the director's chair of The Wolverine, leaving Fox and Hugh Jackman scrambling for a new leader. They're going to move aggressively to replace him. Aronofsky cites a year away from home (presumably in Japan) as the reason for his departure. Sad. Just when we had totally acclimated ourselves to the idea of Aronofsky's madness servicing Wolverine's berserker rages, too. Who didn't want to see Hugh Jackman challenged again by an auteur -- and not just to up his protein consumption -- particularly the auteur that wrestled his best performance out of him?

We think there's way more to the story that Aronofsky and Fox just aren't telling. I was talking to Joe about this and perhaps our imaginations are just overactive but wouldn't any studio simply adjust their current plans to accomodate a director who has a proven track record of upping their star's game and of creating amazing visuals with $1.57 in petty cash that outdo their million dollar investments. Plus, Aronofsky is just off a huge surprise worldwide success.

So herewith...

TEN (IMAGINARY) REASONS ARONOFSKY REALLY LEFT WOLVERINE

10. Darren prefers pencil moustaches to mutton chops.

09. Fox demanded a Halle Berry / Storm cameo.

08. Studio objected to scene Darren referred to as "Uncle Hank's Cigar Challenge"

 

07. Fox insisted that Coney Island was not a suitable stand-in for Tokyo exteriors. Not even with CGI embellishments.

06. Fox demanded a Black Swan Reboot option added to Darren's contract.

05. Hugh Jackman refused to allow actual steel blades to be placed in his arms. Wuss. Mickey Rourke was totally okay with the staples!

04. Aronofsky couldn't stop giggling every time "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was uttered in studio meetings.

03. Wolverine's mutant healing prevented all attempts to dramatize self-mutilation, Aronofsky-style. Aronofsky to Fox: "Booooorrrring!"

02. Fox rejected new costume concept involving Wolverine in a natty scarf.

01. Hugh Jackman wanted Benjamin Milipied to 'choreograph' the fight scenes.

Maybe you can think of more reasons in the comments?

Baby, I Was Linked This Way

Pop Sugar gets a first look at Leonardo DiCaprio, Judi Dench and Armie Hammer suited up for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (pictured left). I'd embed it here but it's one of those annoying videos that starts itself and that won't do. Computers must be silent until they are asked to speak. Don't you agree?

Nicole's Magic explains the reason Nicole Kidman isn't in Just Go With It's marketing campaign (spoilery).
Gallery of the Absurd "commemorates" Lindsay Lohan's latest criminal activity.
The New York Times' dance critic reviews Black Swan. I'm so burnt out on Black Swan right now but this is a good read. Like this

It goes out of its way to contradict the old escapist idea that “everything’s beautiful at the ballet.” Instead it takes energy from the aspects of ballet that are cruel and unfair. Let’s not pretend, however, that those aspects don’t exist.

The Browser Speaking of... Here's a different type of article, Darren Aronofsky talking about his 5 favorite filmmaking books.
Movie|Line regarding that time Anne Heche turned down Speed. WHAAAA? Sorry I l-o-v-e Anne Heche and she does not have the career I long for her to have despite being a unique screen presence and fine actress. Damn you Hollywood, damn you!

Black Voices shares a recent controversial statement about black women and Oscars and extrapolates on that. I find this type of discussion fascinating but whenever people use Oscar nominations and wins to paint broad strokes I always want to school them a little on Oscar history in general. I know I paint with broad strokes sometimes, too, so I sympathize. But take this note for example.

Sure, Halle Berry and Monique won their awards because they played roles that Hollywood is incredibly comfortable with: black women yelling, screaming and suffering without makeup. But, it's not just white Hollywood. We're all incredibly comfortable with miserable black women. I call it pain porn.

I 100% agree that Oscar rewards things they are comfortable with.

But one could make an argument that it's not that Oscar loves seeing black women in pain, it's that Oscar loves seeing women in pain. Dramatic suffering has always been the easiest way to an Oscar. Look at your entire Best Actress lineup this year. They're all white, sure. They're also all suffering. The least tearful woman in the lineup (Jennifer Lawrence) is a tough one, but she also gets beat up and shunned by her own kin. And when she's not in pain porn, she's in poverty porn. (Poverty porn, like pain porn, is not about race with Oscar.) Was Annette Bening nominated this year because she ably conveyed boredom and confusion about her marriage and hilarious cluelessness about what emotions her children were logging? No. I bet you anything she was nominated because when tears welled up in her eyes and she asked her lying wife "did you take a nap, too?" you could feel the sting of betrayal and the disorienting fresh magnitude of her pain. Ever notice how many Oscar clips are people screaming, yelling and suffering? The bulk of them! The same is true for the men (albeit to a lesser degree)

Is that my daughter in theerrrrrrrrrrre?!!!???

But mostly I wanted to say something about this because to disparage Mo'Nique's win is to shun one of the best performances of the modern era. The last time I saw someone dig that deep and find that much humanity inside someone doing monstrous things was... um... I'm not sure that I have. I bow down to Mo'Nique's actressing. If someone doesn't give her another meaty movie role soon, we are all the poorer for it.

Off Cinema Break
Do you like Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way?"

I'm not sure that I do. I have no doubt it'll work for the dancefloor but as a stand-alone pop melody? Sorry for my gay heresy. You can have the toaster back.

Darren Aronofsky's Familiar Faces: Acting Hierarchy

Black Swan is the fifth feature to come from the lunatic vision of Darren Aronofsky and with his first Oscar nomination pending, let's look back on his career. While Natalie Portman is front and center for the entire hit movie and Mickey Rourke had a similarly feature-length closeup in The Wrestler, Aronofsky is the star of all five pictures. If not, he has to be considered the co-lead. He's not invisible as a director is the point even though he's not onscreen. But which faces has he used the most to sell his masterpieces and/or follies (depending on your point of view)? 

Left: Aronofsky; Right: His parents (I believe) in The Wrestler

Let's investigate.

The Darren Aronofsky Acting Hierarchy
(Quantitatively Speaking)

5 Films

One character actor has appeared in every Darren Aronofsky feature (and so has Aronofsky's dad, no joke). Will they both appear in The Wolverine, Hugh Jackman's 5th go at the adamantium clawed Canadian supermutant? I suspect they will, though one has to wonder when Margolis is getting a bigger part. He's got such a great character face.

• Mark Margolis -(left) pontificated about in Pi (1998) which was Aronofsky's debut feature. He also ran the sad pawn shop in Requiem for a Dream (2000) where Sara Goldfarb's TV traded hands so many times. He played Father Avila in The Fountain (2006), Lenny in The Wrestler (2008) and he appears in Black Swan (2010) briefly as a patron of the ballet.
• Abraham Aronofsky - the director's papa delivers a suitcase in Pi, rides the subway in Requiem, works in Ellen Burstyn's lab in The Fountain, is pissed at The Wrestler at the Deli counter, and is also a patron in Swan.

the infamous "ass to ass" scene with "Uncle Hank"

3+ Films

• Stanley Herman is Aronofsky's go-to perv.  He's played "Uncle Hank" twice. Who is Uncle Hank you ask? That's the lech who demands "ass to ass" in Requiem (y'all know what I'm talking about even if you'll forever be trying to block it out). He reprises the role to rattle prim Nina Sayers with obscene gestures on the subway in Black Swan. He also appears in Pi (1998) and in Aronofsky's short film Fortune Cookie. 

3 Films

• Charlotte Aronofsky is Darren's mother. She appears in Requiem, Swan and she's totally annoyed with Mickey Rourke at the deli counter in The Wrestler.
• Marcia Jean Kurtz you'll immediately recognize as one of the Mrs. Goldfarb's sidewalk hens in Requiem. She also works the admissions desk in The Wrestler and in the costume department of Swan, onscreen I mean. Amy Westcott and Rodarte did the actual costumes (though only Westcott will be Oscar-nominated, long story.)
• Ajay Naidu is a medic in The Wrestler, the tortured mailman in Requiem (seriously Mrs. Goldfarb... patience! Look into it.) and Farroukh in Pi.
  

2+ Films

The first of them...

• Sean Gullette is the unethical shrink basically paying for the privilege of screwing his patient Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream as she's always short on funds. Since Requiem is a hall of such compromised horrors, you may have forgotten him. Perhaps this will jog your memory: Connelly stabs him with a fork... in her daydreams. Gullette was  also the first, but certainly not the last, of Aronofsky's pool of protagonists-who-are-completely-losing-their-shit (Pi). He also appears in Aronofsky's short film Supermarket Sweep so they knew each other from way back.

2 Films

Will any of them increase their presence in The Wolverine?

• Gregg Bello is an ER doctor in Requiem and a promoter in The Wrestler.
• Ellen Burstyn was a legendary actress bereft of challenging material in the 1990s. Aronofsky to the rescue! Her performance in Requiem polished her star again, winning her a new generation of young fans and her sixth Oscar nomination. They reteamed for The Fountain. We're hoping against all hope that Aronofsky gives her another juicy role at some point. Though perhaps it's difficult to picture her in Japan with Wolverine. 
• Peter Cheyenne is, we assume, Aronofsky's friend since his only two credits are in Pi & Requiem.
• Joanne Gordon has a recurring role. She plays "Mrs. Octavia" in both Pi & Requiem.
• Shaun O'Hagan is currently stage managing Nina Sayer's big show in Black Swan --those ballerinas sure are a handful -- but he's no stranger to people hanging by their last threads. He was previously a ward attendant in Requiem.
• Ben Shenkman, is a familiar face in television and film. You'll recognize from Damages or Angels in America or Blue Valentine among many others. He appears in both Pi and Requiem.
• Samia Shoaib is a nurse in Requiem and "Devi" in Pi.

What's next?

Hugh Jackman, who gave the best performance of his career in The Fountain, will soon join the ranks of the two-time collaborators in The Wolverine (2012). While it's the sequel to a movie we'd rather not talk about, and will be Jackman's fifth run at the abrasive Canadian mutant superhero, we figure this pairing will reenergize him. At the very least Aronofsky knows from berzerker rages and if a Wolvie movie is ever going to be memorable it's got to sell those better than they've been previously sold.

Gullette, Libatique and Aronofsky on the set of Pi (1998)

One final thing...

Though these posts are about the colors on the director's pallete (i.e. faces in movies), Aronofsky also reuses crew. His most famous collaborator is the composer Clint Mansell who has written the scores for his entire filmography. Clint also appears onscreen in Pi as a photographer. The twice production designer James Chinlund (Requiem and The Fountain) is another collaborator used onscreen (Requiem's "space oddity") and then of course there's Matthew Libatique, the cinematographer, who lensed all of the films except The Wrestler. He's currently earning multiple critics awards for Black Swan so he may finally turn his Oscar luck around; incredibly he's never been nominated by his peers in the Academy.

If you were to appear in an Aronofsky picture, what kind or role would you want to have? Which actor would you love to see him work with again?

Tweet

*

Director's Guild Big 5. Plus Trivia!

If you click on over to the Best Director page that we've had up for awhile, you'll see this Oscar prediction awaiting you.

It's the exact DGA nominee list for Best Director (just announced). This isn't The Film Experience blowing its own horn so much as the obvious: This is the shortlist. In order for anyone else to pull an Oscar nomination on January 25th for Achievement in Direction, they'll have to either: K.O. David O. Russell as he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee; cut those thespian marionette strings that Tom Hooper is gracefully pulling; sue David Fincher for capturing zeitgeist in a bottle before they could; break the legs of Darren Aronofsky's ballerinas; or invade Chris Nolan's Oscar dream. Before it even happens!

Any one of those things will be very difficult to do.

Click to read more ...